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Italy and Spain end border checks imposed after the Ceuta migrant crossings
Interior ministers Matteo Piantedosi and Fernando Grande-Marlaska agreed to restore free movement, closing a summer row between Rome and Madrid.
Key points
- Italy and Spain agreed to lift reciprocal border checks and restore Schengen rules between them.
- Italy brought in the checks on 1 August after more than 70,000 people crossed into Ceuta from Morocco.
- The deal follows a phone call between Piantedosi and Grande-Marlaska.
Italy and Spain have agreed to scrap the border checks they imposed on each other this summer, ending a row that began when tens of thousands of people crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
The decision came after a phone call between Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and his Spanish counterpart Fernando Grande-Marlaska. Both governments issued identical statements saying the move followed a careful assessment. Italy’s interior ministry said the ministers agreed that “the suspensions of Schengen in force … will not be extended further.” The checks will be replaced by closer information-sharing to keep the passport-free area secure.
Prime Ministers Giorgia Meloni and Pedro Sánchez had signalled last week, on the sidelines of the European Council summit in Brussels, that they wanted the checks gone.
The dispute began in July, when more than 70,000 people crossed illegally from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish city on the North African coast. Meloni ordered immediate controls, and on 1 August Italy suspended Schengen rules with Spain, screening travellers at ports and airports. Rome said the checks were aimed mainly at non-EU nationals and at heading off possible terrorist threats.
Madrid was furious. Italy and Spain share no land border, and Ceuta itself lies outside the Schengen area. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares called the Italian move “absurd” and “a disgrace”, and a week later Spain began checking travellers arriving from Italy.